Of the several sensory characteristics of meat, tenderness is perhaps the trait most highly desired by consumers. Consequently, meat tenderness is a factor of major economic importance to the livestock and meat industries. Accordingly, the consumer acceptance of meat, e.g., beef, pork and poultry, depends to a large measure on the tenderness of the meat after cooking. When the meat is tough and fibrous, consumer acceptance is quite low. Meat prepared for home consumption and sold in local groceries and butcheries is normally of the more tender grades. For example, in the case of beef, lot feeding can be required to develop the desired amount of tenderness in the muscle tissue, including increases in fat content. However, such efforts can considerably increase the cost of the meat. For this reason, significant effort has been expended in the art to provide methods for tenderizing less tender grades of meat.
Commonly, food additives (such as, for example, marinades) can be used to enhance the qualities of meats by providing enhanced visual appearance and tenderness from spices and flavorings. For example, some techniques utilize injection of flavorings into the muscle to impart flavor and juiciness prior to packaging the meat. Other techniques include a means of tumbling a meat product in a marinade prior to packaging. In the case of the injected or tumbled marinade techniques, the use of a tenderizer is often omitted because the proteolytic enzyme associated with tenderizing agents can overly soften the meat, resulting in an unsatisfactory texture. The over-tenderizing results from prolonged contact time between the meat and the tenderizing agent as a consequence of the poor ability to control the exposure time during distribution. Additionally, even without considering the role of a proteolytic enzyme, the quality of a pre-marinated package is necessarily inconsistent as the meat generally is exposed for too long to the flavorants.
Alternatively, restaurants or consumers can purchase a vacuum packaged meat package, cut open the package, and transfer the meat to a second bag wherein a marinade is added, or to a tray or vat that is loaded with a marinade. With the tray, vat, or second bag method, a consumer removes the meat from its shipment package and necessarily exposes the meat to outside conditions that can introduce contamination during marinating. In addition, the method can introduce the undesirable step of cleaning the tray or vat to prevent cross-contamination.